


Executive Functioning Isn't Goku's Strong Suit

by WinchesterWarrenSon



Series: Battle Scars Series [8]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Developmentally Disabled Son Goku, Disabled Character, M/M, R-Word Usage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-02
Updated: 2015-03-02
Packaged: 2018-03-16 02:06:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3470369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinchesterWarrenSon/pseuds/WinchesterWarrenSon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Yamcha's birthday. Puar won't make it home in time to bake the cake. Goku makes an attempt. He really shouldn't have. Set after "Never Saw This Coming" but can be read independently of the other drabbles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Executive Functioning Isn't Goku's Strong Suit

**Author's Note:**

> This is semi-based on things that have actually happened to me in real life. It's a bit exaggerated because Goku is a Saiyan and has never done the task he attempts before.

Goku had been excited about having the day off today. It was Yamcha's birthday, and he couldn't wait to be a part of it. He wasn't really sure why, but he hadn't really celebrated anyone's birthday aside from Chichi's, Gohan's, and Goten's before, and this day marked a half a year of being in a relationship with Yamcha. 

Puar was supposed to get off work around midday, and then Goku would help her get ready. She had planned to bake the cake, and Goku could set the table and light the candles and all that stuff. 

But Puar didn't show up when she was supposed to, and Goku started to wonder. Then the phone rang. 

"Goku! There's been a change of plans! I don't have time to get what we're missing from the store or to bake it! You'll need to find another way, I won't be there until Yamcha does! I'm really sorry!" 

"It's okay, Puar, I'll figure something out." 

"All right! I'll see you then." 

"Right. Bye!" 

Goku hung up, then looked around the kitchen and saw that Puar hadn't been kidding about needing stuff from the store. Hadn't they just gone . . . ? No matter, he was sure it would be too bad. Though he had only ever gone when someone else was with him. Usually Yamcha, and before that, sometimes with Chichi on the rare occasion he couldn't just kill what they wanted to eat. 

But really, how hard could it be? 

Eh. Heh heh. Heh.... 

Goku hadn't anticipated just how busy it was going to be that afternoon, considering what day of the week it was, and despite trying his best, he bumped into several people and really couldn't apologize enough for it. By the time that he gathered what he needed, he could feel his head getting all fuzzy. His ability to concentrate was getting away from him, and it was a huge relief to be out of there with the food. Especially since there had been a little hiccup at the cash register that he didn't fully understand.... 

Once back at home, he went straight into the baking process, though . . . this was also his first time ever making a cake. 

To . . . make the story short . . . . 

When Yamcha, Puar, and Oolong all got home from their prospective jobs, the kitchen looked like it had just been put out from being on fire, spots of chocolate were smudged in ways that made it look like the cake batter had exploded, and Goku was rather covered in soot and chocolate smudge. He stood in the middle of the mess, face red and mouth trembling. 

Yamcha just stared at Goku, not even sure what to say exactly. 

"Goku . . . ? What . . . happened . . . ?" 

"I . . . I tried to bake a cake, but . . . ." 

Goku lifted a(n albeit very dirty) hand and pressed his palm against the side of his head. Yamcha's shoulders sagged a little. 

"Head hurting?" Yamcha asked, remembering some things he had heard from a documentary that had been on TV a while back. 

Goku nodded. Yamcha gave him a smile. 

"You should give yourself a break when that happens, okay? Don't worry about any of this, we'll clean it up together when you're feeling better. Why don't you wash up and I'll call Bulma and let her know there's been a chance in plans, okay?" 

Goku nodded and walked off to do as asked, and Yamcha pulled his cell out. 

"Hey, Bulma? Yeah, this is Yamcha. Something happened, and it's probably a better idea if we meet up at a restaurant somewhere.... Yeah, uh huh. Yep, sounds good. Sure. See you there." 

Yamcha then hung up. "Hey, Goku, Vegeta and Trunks are gonna be there too. That okay?" 

Goku emerged with a clean face, hands, and clothes - Goku had a rather hilarious tendency to dress like a lesbian when he wore civilian clothes, and right now he looked like a casually well-dressed lesbian with the plaid button-up and jeans - and nodded. Yamcha paused for a moment. Then - 

"You feeling all right enough to go out?" 

Goku nodded again, and Yamcha frowned a little. He walked forward to Goku and lifted a hand up and ran his fingers through Goku's hair. Goku looked up at Yamcha, also frowning. 

"It's okay. It's also okay if you want to stay here instead or do something else...." 

". . . No, I want to go." 

Yamcha smiled at him. He hadn't been sure if . . . . 

"C'mon, then. I'll drive." 

They got into the car, and in short order, they arrived at the restaurant. Bulma, Vegeta, and Trunks were already there and had gone ahead and gotten a table. 

Greetings were done, and then Yamcha and Bulma easily fell into conversation, as did Oolong and Puar, while Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks mostly listened and ate their food. After a while though. . . . 

"So what happened exactly that made the plans change?" Bulma asked. 

"Eh heh, well....."

"I couldn't get off work to bake the cake and get things ready, so I told Goku to do it...." Puar said. 

"And he kinda blew up the kitchen instead," Oolong finished. 

Goku was red in the face again. "It was an accident...." 

Trunks snorted. "How'd you manage that?" 

Goku didn't answer and just stared at his place. 

Trunks didn't just stop there though. "I mean, how retarded do you have to - ow!"

Bulma had grabbed Trunks's ear in response to him using _that_ word, and Yamcha's eyes widened and Oolong's and Puar's jaws dropped.

"What'd I do?" Trunks asked, getting his ear back. 

"We don't use that word!" Bulma said. 

Goku and Vegeta just stared at them, wondering what was going on. 

"Why exactly are we punishing him?" Vegeta asked. 

"Which . . . word?" Goku asked, almost speaking over Vegeta. 

Bulma, Yamcha, Oolong, Puar, and Trunks looked over at the two Saiyans. Vegeta's eyebrow twitched. 

"What? This is my first time hearing the word in the whole nine years of being on this planet, what were you expecting?" Vegeta said. 

Yamcha focused on Goku, and he knew he had to answer the question. He opened his mouth, but Oolong ended up speaking up first. 

"Oh, you know, it means, like, the R-word makes fun of you for being dropped on your head as a baby even though you weren't dropped on your head or something like that. It's just not very nice 'cause it makes fun of brain-damaged people." Oolong answered. 

"And the developmentally disabled. Which, I guess, some brain-damaged people are, but not everyone developmentally disabled has brain damage...." Puar added. 

"Guys - " Yamcha interjected, but couldn't say much else other than that before Goku interrupted. 

"But I _was_ dropped on my head as a baby...." 

Yamcha felt very tired by this point, and there was an awkward silence after Goku said it. 

". . . _Oh_ ," was all Trunks said after that, blushing a bright pink. 

The wheels in Goku's head were still having trouble from earlier, but they were still turning regardless. "So . . . am I retarded?" he asked. 

Yamcha, Bulma, Oolong, and Puar involuntarily flinched, and none of them really knew what to say. 

"Goku, I . . . ." Yamcha paused for a moment, then sighed. "There once was an official diagnosis called mental retardation, and it was coined by doctors at the time. But people who weren't . . . like that thought they were better than them, and they'd use the term improperly and use the word to insult other people, regardless of whether or not they had the diagnosis or not.... It . . . it turned into a word that wasn't helpful to anyone anymore. So doctors don't use that diagnosis anymore and use other things. Especially now that they can distinguish between different conditions that used to be all considered the same.... Does that make sense?" 

Goku sat there for a long moment, trying to piece it all together. 

"So . . . it's a bad word?" 

"Yeah...." 

"And it's bad . . . because getting dropped on your head is bad?" 

"It's . . . not particularly good for you, since head injuries have the potential to kill you...." 

"So . . . ." 

But Goku never really finished that train of thought, at least not out loud, and Yamcha was a little worried about what was going on in that head of his. 

"We just don't use that word. People only use it when they're trying to hurt someone else - or if it's been used against them, they might use it out of frustration if talking about their own experiences. But mostly it's used to hurt people. That's really why it's a bad word." 

"Okay...." 

Goku still looked like he was thinking pretty hard, but there wasn't anything Yamcha could do if he didn't open up about what he was thinking. 

Vegeta was pretty quiet as he absorbed the information, and Trunks stayed quiet throughout the remainder of the evening, too, ashamed of himself. Bulma attempted to apologize for the whole thing, but right when she was about to, Goku got up and went to the bathroom. 

After the bill was paid, they went their separate ways, Bulma giving Goku and Yamcha hugs. 

"I'm sorry...." she said in Yamcha's ear, knowing that his birthday ended rather poorly. 

"Don't worry about it. I'll talk to him when he's ready," Yamcha told her in a low voice. They then bid each other goodbye. 

At home, Oolong and Puar nominated themselves to clean the kitchen (though that didn't stop Oolong from grumbling good-naturedly about how much there was to clean up). So Goku and Yamcha cuddled on the couch, with the TV on. Yamcha held the remote in his hand, but neither of them were really focusing on what was on. Just some predictable crime drama.... 

"Yamcha?" Goku mumbled after a while, his head resting on Yamcha's shoulder. 

"Yeah?" Yamcha asked. 

". . . Am I bad?" 

Yamcha's mind immediately went to Goku's unfinished sentence at dinner, and his stomach twisted into knots. 

"No, of course not. You're good and kind and . . . and one of the best things that's ever happened to me." 

". . . Master Roshi says Grandpa told him that I had been a wild, violent baby before I hit my head.... Not that different from Vegeta...." 

". . . Well . . . Vegeta turned out to not be so bad, right? He's a good dad to Trunks and is good to Bulma and being nicer to everybody than I ever expected he would be...." 

Goku nodded, but Yamcha had a feeling the conversation wasn't done yet. 

"Does the brain injury mean I'm . . . mean I'm broken?" 

"No. It just means you work differently than you did before it." 

". . . Do you think I'd be smarter if it never happened?" 

". . . Maybe." 

"If I was smarter, would I have understood what Chichi and Gohan wanted?" 

"I dunno.... Plenty of smart people don't understand what other people want." 

"Really?" 

"Yeah." 

". . . Okay." 

Goku nuzzled into Yamcha's shoulder more and wrapped his arms around him. It was then that Yamcha felt like the conversation was over, and he was right as Goku didn't speak up about it again for the rest of the night. 

Instead Goku asked if they could pop in one of those kung-fu movies that Yamcha owned. It was the only kind of movie Goku could stand to watch all the way through without turning into a cuddly cat-like thing in Yamcha's lap.


End file.
